


A Fairytale Trollhunter

by Nickstarz



Category: Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons), Trollhunters - Daniel Kraus & Guillermo del Toro
Genre: Gen, Mysterious encounter, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-15 07:52:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18494602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nickstarz/pseuds/Nickstarz
Summary: A strange encounter in the woods leads into an unlikely friendship.





	A Fairytale Trollhunter

Even before Trollhunting Jim knew that magic in a sense was hidden within Arcadia. He had stared right into its eyes and it blinked first.

  
  


It had started with a sunny afternoon down in the woods behind his house. The filtering light spilling from the tree canopy greeted him as warmly as the birds. The sweetbird song put a smile on his face as the day’s stresses of tedious schoolwork ebbed away into nothingness. Breathing in the crisp autumn air, it felt as though he hadn’t been there for years.

 

Jim ventured over the wild brush, steering clear of the untamed hook grass and thorns. Whistling along with the birds as he balanced along the tree roots, so matted and tangled it was hard to tell where they ended.

 

A few sparrows dart close, almost teasingly, though the hummingbird lingers a few seconds longer, remembering it’s mended wing. A few crows straight out of the pages of an Edgar Allan Poe novel hop alongside him, chatting about who knows what. But Jim liked to fill in the blanks and settled upon complaining about their witchy masters. 

 

Some chipmunks chirped out their greetings from within the tree branches. A family of hedgehogs plodded along, looking for good nests within the rotting leaves. The innumerable frogs hopped along the mossy rocks in the creek.

  
  


It was a Beatrix Potter storybook come to life, quite a few people insisted that the forest was bursting with life and was absolutely full of critters and noise. Even Toby agreed that the deer were friendly, however there was also other people that would insist that the forest was silent.

 

Jim’s clearest memory of his father was the first time they walked through together. He remembered the first time he heard the woods fall silent, a subtle hush overcame them and his father kept looking behind his back. He told Jim that the woods were always this quiet and how creepy it got at night with things shifting in the shadows and things tapped on windows when he was alone. In the morning he’d wake up to spiders.

 

Perhaps the old myth was true. That the woods were so steeped with ancient magics that it resonated within the animals and trees, turning them fickle with a high preference to pure hearts. At least maybe it’d explain a few things.

  
  


He broke out of the treeline, his favourite spot awaited him like a patient friend. A sandy clifftop that overlooked the town, guarded by one tree, its roots had a firm grip around a half buried boulder that was good for leaning against.

 

Jim plopped down, it was only then he realized just how exhausted he was. All the past week had been was a blur of rushed tests, crashed servers and a lot of hair pulling. His heavily lidded eyes burned from the gritty exhaustion, like sandpaper.

 

His limbs grew heavy, the pressure was easing itself off his shoulders, however a new weight was dragging him into the dream realm. He decided to just rest his eyes for a few moments. 

  
  


Jim was startled awake by snuffling, it took a few reeling moments to realize where he was and what date it was. Blinking the sunspots out of his eyes he slumped up, rubbing his sore muscles and looking towards the deer that had woken him.

 

Except what stood in front of him was far from a deer.

 

It was a horse, at least he thought it was a horse. It was a magnificent pure white stallion with a subtle glimmer in his mane that shimmered under the sunlight. And he was huge. So much bigger than any horse he’d seen. Or perhaps he wasn't one of those run of the mill riding horses. This one made them look dainty!

 

The horse nuzzled him again. Jim cautiously petted his head, wary of the dinner plate sized hooves. The horse’s mane was quite scruffy, wild from the winds, which was why it took so long until Jim realized that he had a horn. One glorious long horn, like a narwhal's, or perhaps more accurately.

 

A unicorn.

 

Jim’s eyes widened with the realization, the implications of what would happen to his new found friend if discovered hit Jim like a truck. From then on Toby had been the only other soul that had known the woods contained a unicorn.

 

Jim stared into the eyes of the magical guardian of the forest and the unicorn blinked first.


End file.
